Opening Demonstration | Global Concepts in Motion: Experimenting with Data in the Humanities

Please join us for the opening demonstration of Global Concepts in Motion, a data visualization interface developed by Hugo F. Idárraga (PhD Candidate, Computational Media, Arts, & Cultures) in conversation with Christina Chia (Associate Director, Franklin Humanities Institute). The interactive installation will be on view at the FHI from from April 13 through May 15 at Bay 4, Smith Warehouse.

Sign up here to help us with planning: https://duke.is/conceptsinmotion

Global Concepts in Motion originated from a desire to find alternative ways to re-present and activate the lecture videos produced during the first year (2022) of the Climate Change, Decolonization, and Global Blackness Lab (CCDGB) at the FHI. Dense with theoretical insights and frequently poetic and speculative in orientation, these videos did not fit easily in the logics of hashtags, playlists, and YouTube algorithms.

We began by reflecting on how to categorize these videos in ways that could generate unexpected conceptual relationships among them. Over the past three semesters, Hugo has developed a data visualization interface in JavaScript, designed as a network graph through which users can explore the topics of the videos.

In its current form, the interface allows for two modes of engagement: a distant reading through broader categories such as race and colonialism, and a more in-depth exploration grounded in the specialized concepts of each presentation. It is intended to encourage the formation of unexpected epistemological connections, functioning as both an analytical and political exercise in data relationality.